Facebook spies on phone users' text messages - admitted it as part of a trial to launch its own messaging service -

Facebook spies on phone users' text messages - admitted it as part of a trial to launch its own messaging service - 


Internet giant Facebook is accessing smartphone users' personal text messages, an investigation revealed Sunday.
Facebook admitted reading text messages belonging to smartphone users who downloaded the social-networking app and said that it was accessing the data as part of a trial to launch its own messaging service, The (London) Sunday Times reported.
Other well-known companies accessing smartphone users' personal data -- such as text messages -- include photo-sharing site Flickr, dating site Badoo and Yahoo Messenger, the paper said.
It claimed that some apps even allow companies to intercept phone calls -- while others, such as YouTube, are capable of remotely accessing and operating users' smartphone cameras to take photographs or videos at any time.
Security app My Remote Lock and the app Tennis Juggling Game were among smaller companies' apps that may intercept users' calls, the paper said.
Emma Draper, of the Privacy International campaign group, said, "Your personal information is a precious commodity, and companies will go to great lengths to get their hands on as much of it as possible."




Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/02/26/facebook-spies-on-phone-users-text-messages-report-says/?test=latestnews

55 Interesting Facts About The U.S. Economy In 2012 -

55 Interesting Facts About The U.S. Economy In 2012 - 




How is the U.S. economy doing in 2012?  Unfortunately, it is not doing nearly as well as the mainstream media would have you believe.  Yes, things have stabilized for the moment but this bubble of false hope will not last for long.  The long-term trends that are ripping our economy and our financial system to shreds continue unabated.  When you step back and look at the broader picture, it is hard to deny that we are in really bad shape and that things are rapidly getting worse.  Later on in this article you will find a list of interesting facts that show the true state of the U.S. economy.  Hopefully many of you will find this list to be a useful tool that you can share with your family and friends.  Each day the foundations of our economy crumble a little bit more, and we need to wake up as many Americans as we can to what is really going on while there is still time.  We have accumulated way too much debt, we consume far more wealth than we produce, millions of our jobs are being shipped overseas, our big cities are decaying, family budgets are being squeezed more than ever, poverty is rampant and we have raised several generations of Americans that expect the government to fix all of their problems.  The U.S. economy is at a crossroads, and the decisions that the American people make in 2012 are going to be incredibly important.


The statistics listed below are presented without much commentary.  They pretty much speak for themselves.


After reading this list, it will be hard for anyone to argue that we are on the right track.


The following are 55 interesting facts about the U.S. economy in 2012….


#1 As you read this, there are more than 6 million mortgages in the United States that are overdue.


#2 In January, U.S. home prices were the lowest that they have been in more than a decade.


#3 In Florida right now, some drivers are paying nearly 6 dollars for a gallon of gas.
#4 On average, you could buy about 10 gallons of gas for an hour of work back in the mid-90s.  Today, the average hour of work will get you less than 6 gallons of gas.


#5 Sadly, 43 percent of all American families spend more than they earn each year.


#6 According to Gallup, the unemployment rate was at 8.3% in mid-January butrose to 9.0% in mid-February.


#7 The percentage of working age Americans that have jobs is not increasing.  The employment to population ratio has stayed very steady (hovering between 58% and 59%) since the beginning of 2010.


#8 If you gathered together all of the workers that are “officially” unemployed in the United States into one nation, they would constitute the 68th largest country in the entire world.


#9 When Barack Obama first took office, the number of “long-term unemployed workers” in the United States was approximately 2.6 million.  Today, that number is sitting at 5.6 million.


#10 The average duration of unemployment in the United States is hoveringclose to an all-time record high.


#11 According to Reuters, approximately 23.7 million American workers are either unemployed or underemployed right now.


#12 There are about 88 million working age Americans that are not employed and that are not looking for employment.  That is an all-time record high.


#13 According to CareerBuilder, only 23 percent of American companies plan to hire more employees in 2012.


#14 Back in the year 2000, about 20 percent of all jobs in America were manufacturing jobs.  Today, about 5 percent of all jobs in America are manufacturing jobs.


#15 The United States has lost an average of approximately 50,000 manufacturing jobs a month since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.


#16 Amazingly, more than 56,000 manufacturing facilities in the United States have been shut down since 2001.


#17 According to author Paul Osterman, about 20 percent of all U.S. adults are currently working jobs that pay poverty-level wages.


#18 During the Obama administration, worker health insurance costs have risenby 23 percent.


#19 An all-time record 49.9 million Americans do not have any health insurance at all at this point, and the percentage of Americans covered by employer-based health plans has fallen for 11 years in a row.


#20 According to the New York Times, approximately 100 million Americans are either living in poverty or in “the fretful zone just above it”.


#21 In the United States today, corporate profits are at an all-time high.  The percentage of Americans that are living in “extreme poverty” is also at an all-time high according to the U.S. Census Bureau.


#22 In the United States today, the wealthiest one percent of all Americans have a greater net worth than the bottom 90 percent combined.


#23 The poorest 50 percent of all Americans now collectively own just 2.5%of all the wealth in the United States.


#24 The number of children living in poverty in the state of California has increased by 30 percent since 2007.


#25 According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, 36.4% of all children that live in Philadelphia are living in poverty, 40.1% of all children that live in Atlanta are living in poverty, 52.6% of all children that live in Cleveland are living in poverty and 53.6% of all children that live in Detroit are living in poverty.


#26 Since Barack Obama entered the White House, the number of Americans on food stamps has increased from 32 million to 46 million.


#27 As the economy has slowed down, so has the number of marriages.  According to a Pew Research Center analysis, only 51 percent of all Americans that are at least 18 years old are currently married.  Back in 1960, 72 percentof all U.S. adults were married.


#28 In 1984, the median net worth of households led by someone 65 or older was 10 times larger than the median net worth of households led by someone 35 or younger.  Today, the median net worth of households led by someone 65 or older is 47 times larger than the median net worth of households led by someone 35 or younger.


#29 If you can believe it, 37 percent of all U.S. households that are led by someone under the age of 35 have a net worth of zero or less than zero.


#30 After adjusting for inflation, U.S. college students are borrowing about twice as much money as they did a decade ago.


#31 According to the Student Loan Debt Clock, total student loan debt in the United States will surpass the 1 trillion dollar mark at some point in 2012.  If you went out right now and starting spending one dollar every single second, it would take you more than 31,000 years to spend one trillion dollars.


#32 Today, 46% of all Americans carry a credit card balance from month to month.


#33 Incredibly, one out of every seven Americans has at least 10 credit cards.


#34 The average interest rate on a credit card that is carrying a balance is now up to 13.10 percent.


#35 Of the U.S. households that do have credit card debt, the average amount of credit card debt is an astounding $15,799.


#36 Overall, Americans are carrying a grand total of $798 billion in credit card debt.  If you were alive when Jesus was born and you spent a million dollars every single day since then, you still would not have spent $798 billion by now.


#37 It may be hard to believe, but the truth is that consumer debt in America has increased by a whopping 1700% since 1971.


#38 At this point, about 70 percent of all auto purchases in the United States involve an auto loan.


#39 In the United States today, 45 percent of all auto loans are made to subprime borrowers.


#40 Mortgage debt as a percentage of GDP has more than tripled since 1955.


#41 According to a recent study conducted by the BlackRock Investment Institute, the ratio of household debt to personal income in the United States is now 154 percent.


#42 To get the same purchasing power that you got out of $20.00 back in 1970 you would have to have more than $116 today.


#43 When Barack Obama first took office, an ounce of gold was going for about $850.  Today an ounce of gold costs more than $1700 an ounce.


#44 The number of Americans that are not paying federal incomes taxes is atan all-time high.


#45 A staggering 48.5% of all Americans live in a household that receives some form of government benefits.  Back in 1983, that number was below 30 percent.


#46 The amount of money that the federal government gives directly to Americans has increased by 32 percent since Barack Obama entered the White House.


#47 During 2012, the U.S. government must roll over nearly 3 trillion dollarsof old debt.


#48 The U.S. debt to GDP ratio has now reached 101 percent.


#49 At the moment, the U.S. national debt is sitting at a grand total of$15,419,800,222,325.15.


#50 The U.S. national debt is now more than 22 times larger than it was when Jimmy Carter became president.


#51 During the Obama administration, the U.S. government has accumulated more debt than it did from the time that George Washington took office to the time that Bill Clinton took office.


#52 If the federal government began right at this moment to repay the U.S. national debt at a rate of one dollar per second, it would take over 440,000 years to pay off the national debt.


#53 If Bill Gates gave every single penny of his fortune to the U.S. government, it would only cover the U.S. budget deficit for about 15 days.


#54 Right now, the U.S. national debt is increasing by about 150 million dollars every single hour.


#55 Spending by the federal government accounted for about 2 percent of GDP back in 1800.  It accounted for 23.8 percent in 2011, and according to former U.S. Comptroller General David M. Walker, it will account for 36.8 percent of GDP by 2040.


Bad news, eh?


Read more -
http://www.blacklistednews.com/55_Interesting_Facts_About_The_U.S._Economy_In_2012/18097/0/0/0/Y/M.html

Nearly Half of All Americans Don’t Pay Income Taxes - most of that population receives generous federal benefits -

Nearly Half of All Americans Don’t Pay Income Taxes - most of that population receives generous federal benefits - 


This year’s Index of Dependence on Government presented startling findings about the sharp increase of Americans who rely on the federal government for housing, food, income, student aid or other assistance. (See last week’s chart.)
Another eye-popping number was the percentage of Americans who don’t pay income taxes, which now accounts for nearly half of the U.S. population. Meanwhile, most of that population receives generous federal benefits.
“One of the most worrying trends in the Index is the coinciding growth in the non-taxpaying public,” wrote Heritage authors Bill Beach and Patrick Tyrrell. “The percentage of people who do not pay federal income taxes, and who are not claimed as dependents by someone who does pay them, jumped from 14.8 percent in 1984 to 49.5 percent in 2009.”
That means 151.7 million Americans paid nothing in 2009. By comparison, 34.8 million tax filers paid no taxes in 1984.
The rapid growth of Americans who don’t pay income taxes is particularly alarming for the fate of the American form of government, Beach and Tyrrell warned. Coupled with higher spending on government programs, it is already proving to be a major fiscal challenge.


Read more - 
http://blog.heritage.org/2012/02/19/chart-of-the-week-nearly-half-of-all-americans-dont-pay-income-taxes/

Woman in Texas struck by bullet from Mexico -

Woman in Texas struck by bullet from Mexico - 


A woman shopping on a busy downtown El Paso street became the first victim of bullets flying across the border from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Tuesday when she was hit in the calf and wounded, authorities said.
The 48-year-old woman, whose name has not been released, was pushing a stroller when she was struck. Gregg Allen, El Paso's chief of police, said the wound was caused by a "full metal jacket hard-nosed bullet" like those used in assault rifles.


Because of that, he said, the projectile caused a clean exit wound. The victim was taken to a nearby hospital, where she was treated and released.
El Paso Mayor John Cook asked residents to remain calm, saying there is "no way to prevent incidents like this from happening" and the odds of getting hit by a stray bullet are minimal.
Many people who were in the area at first didn't realize what had happened.
"We didn't hear anything. The first thing we heard was the firemen coming, but we didn't know what was happening," said Luis Gomez, a pedestrian who was shopping in the same area where the woman was hit.
She was struck at the same time Juarez police were battling alleged carjackers a few hundred feet from the U.S. border. Allen said reports indicate up to 50 shots were fired in that gunfight.




Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/02/21/woman-in-texas-struck-by-bullet-from-mexico/?test=latestnews

The founder of the filesharing website Megaupload, Kim Dotcom, was granted bail and released on Wednesday -

The founder of the filesharing website Megaupload, Kim Dotcom, was granted bail and released on Wednesday  - 

The founder of the filesharing website Megaupload, Kim Dotcom, was granted bail and released on Wednesday after a New Zealand judge determined that authorities have seized any funds he might have used to flee the country.



Dotcom, who US authorities allege facilitated millions of illegal downloads through his company, has been in custody since his arrest on Jan 20.
Magila Annandale, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Justice, said the ministry was seeking details on the conditions of Dotcom's release. District courts in New Zealand typically don't require a monetary bond when granting bail.
US authorities claim Megaupload cost movie makers and songwriters some half a billion dollars in lost copyright revenue. They are trying to extradite Dotcom, 28, and three of his colleagues on racketeering charges.
New Zealand authorities have seized millions of dollars in investments and assets owned by Dotcom, including luxury cars and artworks.
North Shore District Court Judge Nevin Dawson found that the German-born Dotcom no longer posed a significant flight risk because, as far as the court was aware, he wasn't hiding any money or assets that could help him flee the country. New Zealand courts had earlier turned down Dotcom's bail application and a subsequent appeal, saying he did pose a flight risk, but Dawson said those decisions were made when details about Dotcom's assets remained unclear.


Read more - 
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/internet/9097530/Megaupload-founder-Kim-Dotcom-granted-bail.html

Fed Funds to Pay for Teen Mail-Order Condoms - California program lets kids as young as 12 get condoms for free -

Fed Funds to Pay for Teen Mail-Order Condoms - California program lets kids as young as 12 get condoms for free - 




Teenagers in several counties can get condoms in the mail for free under a program launched this week and supported by state public health officials.
  The Condom Access Project allows youth between the ages of 12 and 19 to order a package of 10 condoms, lube and health brochures online at TeenSource.org, a website run by the nonprofit California Family Health Council. The package will be mailed to them in a nondescript yellow envelope.
  Supporters say the program -- aimed at reducing pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases among teens -- will benefit young people who cannot afford to buy condoms or are too embarrassed to go to clinics where they are distributed for free.
  "We can't keep our heads in the sand and pretend there isn't a problem...," Vice President of Public Affairs for the Family Health Council Amy Moy told the Bakersfield Californian. "We want to make sure (teens are) as safe as possible."
  Teens and young adults have the highest rates of gonorrhea and chlamydia of all age groups in California, according to health officials. In Kern County, one of the counties where the new program is available, teenage birth rates are among the highest in the state.
  But critics say the program could be perceived as tacit approval of teenage sex and may not go over well with parents.
  "I would think the overwhelming majority of parents in Kern County wouldn't think this is a good idea," said Linda Davis, executive director of the Bakersfield Pregnancy Center, which emphasizes abstinence. "And I don't think their kids would have the nerve to request them."




Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/02/19/california-counties-get-federally-funded-mail-order-condom-program/

Chinese Shrimp injected with gelatin-like chemicals to make them heavier and plumper poses a threat to public health -

Chinese Shrimp injected with gelatin-like chemicals to make them heavier and plumper poses a threat to public health - 




Experts say that some shrimp originating in Tianjin have been injected with gelatin-like chemicals to make them heavier and plumper, posing a threat to public health.


The transparent chemical can usually be found in the heads of the shrimp. A local wholesaler, who declined to reveal his name, told Xinhua that the altered shrimp were frozen, and the gelatin-like chemical was injected to increase the weight.


"The frozen shrimp tend to shrivel after being taken out of the freezer, so lots of shrimp are injected with gelatin-like chemicals in the head and torso," he said.


Wang Shuo, vice president of the Tianjin University of Science and Technology, told the Global Times that if it is confirmed the chemical is a gelatin, it may be harmful to people's health.


"There are two kinds of gelatin. One is edible, and used as a food additive. The other is used in industrial products, which contains a certain amount of heavy metal, and thus poses a health threat," Wang said.


"Since the identity of the chemical has not been confirmed I'm not sure if it is hazardous, but adding such chemicals is definitely against the law," he added.


Read more -
http://english.people.com.cn/90882/7731941.html

White Grandfather Detained While Walking With Black Granddaughter - By Texas Police -

White Grandfather Detained While Walking With Black Granddaughter - By Texas Police - 




A crime and politics blogger living in Austin, Texas, claims he was cuffed and detained by police for simply walking home with his five-year-old granddaughter.


The reason this happened, he says, is because he is white and she is black.


Scott Henson, a political consultant who blogs about the criminal justice system at Grits For Breakfast said he was walking home from a roller skating rink with his 5-year-old granddaughter Ty last Friday night when he was stopped by a female deputy.


The officer told him that there were reports of a white man kidnapping a black girl and he was ordered to step away from Ty as the officer questioned the girl, the New York Daily News reported.


"He's my Grandpa!" was Ty's response, according to Henson's blog.


After a few minutes of questioning, Henson and Ty were allowed to walk home. They were just two blocks away when they were stopped by five flashing police cars and a crowd of police.


"The officers got out with tasers drawn demanding I raise my hands and step away from the child," Henson said.




Henson complied, but he said the cops handled him roughly, jerking his arms as they cuffed him. The scene caused Ty to edge up the hill away from the officers, crying.


"One of them called out in a comforting tone that they weren't there to hurt her, but another officer blew up any good will that might have garnered by brusquely snatching her up and scuttling her off to the back seat of one of the police cars," Henson said.


The officers kept questioning Ty over and over again, but Henson said they took their sweet time calling the phone numbers he gave them to verify that she was his granddaughter and he had permission to walk her home.


Henson said the police never apologized, even after they released them, though they did explain that they take kidnapping calls very seriously.


Read more -
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/14/white-grandfather-detained_n_1275383.html

Goats can form accents - pick up accents as they get older and join social groups -

Goats can form accents - pick up accents as they get older and join social groups - 




Humans, elephants and dolphins do it, and apparently goats do, too.


The horned ruminants pick up accents as they get older and join social groups, according to researchers at Queen Mary University, London, The Daily Telegraph reported Thursday.


Experts previously thought only a select group of mammals has the ability to modify vocal sounds according to their surroundings, and that other species' "voices" were determined solely by genetics. Whales and bats pick up accents as well.


The researchers recorded the bleats of four groups of pygmy goats at one week old, when kids, as young goats are known, from the same litter remain with one another, and again at five weeks old, when they form social groups with other goats of the same age.


Not surprisingly, the study found genetically related kids produced similar calls. But it found the vocal calls of goats raised in the same social groups also became more similar as the kids grew older.




Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/goats-form-accents-study-finds-article-1.1024196?localLinksEnabled=false

Record 19 reporters, media execs join Team Obama -

Record 19 reporters, media execs join Team Obama - 


For some Washington reporters and media execs, cheering their team from the sidelines just isn’t good enough: Tugging on a red, white and blue Team Obama jersey is the answer.


That’s the case for a whopping 19 journalists and media executives, including five from the Washington Post and three each from ABC and CNN, who’ve gone into the administration or center-left groups supporting the president.


Those inside the administration hit 14 this month when the Post’s Stephen Barr joined the Labor Department. That’s a record, say some revolving door watchers, and could even be much higher: The Post reports that “dozens” of former journalists have joined the administration, although Washington Secrets couldn’t verify that tally.


Many are in communications and speech writing offices, most prominently Jay Carney, the president’s spokesman who ran Time’s Washington bureau, and husband to ABC’s Claire Shipman. Some joined as the news business collapsed, many to finally voice their politics, and others, notably former Transportation spokeswoman Jill Zuckman, because she liked her future boss, Secretary Ray LaHood, a rare Republican in the administration. That relationship rocked: LaHood broke through the lower-tier Cabinet P.R. ceiling to become one of the most well-known Transportation secretaries ever. She had worked for the Chicago Tribune.


The revolving door isn’t a surprise to critics of the media and Obama. “The number of reporters going into the Obama administration merely confirms what I knew and what most conservatives long believed,” said Noam Neusner, himself one of the few reporters hired as a Bush speech writer. “There is a vast supply of liberals in newsrooms, they are very happy to support Obama administration policies if they can get hired and they barely hide their ideology in the way they cover the news.” Neusner, who I worked with at U.S. News, said that he too might have been guilty of a pro-Bush bias, but said correctly: “My editors and colleagues were surprised to hear that I was a Republican.”


A former GOP Capitol Hill and cabinet spokesman added, “It’s frustrating to see so many reporters that had relationships with trusted sources give up their ‘impartiality’ and start playing for the other side. It does show that the game is stacked in favor of the other side when most reporters still working in their profession remain silent.”

Read more - 

http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/record-19-reporters-media-execs-join-team-obama/380971

20 Signs You Might Be A Typical American Worker -

The following are 20 signs you might be a typical American worker….






#1 If you are working three jobs and you still don’t have enough money at the end of the month, you might be a typical American worker.


#2 If your job involves asking the question “Would you like fries with that?”, you might be a typical American worker.


#3 If you shop at the dollar store because Wal-Mart is too expensive, you might be a typical American worker.


#4 If your job requires you to wear a smock, a brightly colored polo shirt orlots of “flair”, you might be a typical American worker.


#5 If people are constantly asking you where the restroom is while you are at work, you might be a typical American worker.


#6 If your employer hires extra part-time workers in order to avoid giving anyone full-time hours, you might be a typical American worker.


#7 If you are required to watch a mindless “training video” after being hired, you might be a typical American worker.


#8 If the company you work for is owned by someone on the other side of the world, you might be a typical American worker.


#9 If a trained seal could do your job and you feel like your expensive education is going to waste, you might be at typical American worker.


#10 If you don’t have any health insurance at all, you might be a typical American worker.  Only about 25 percent of all part-time workers in the United States receive employee benefits such as health insurance or paid sick leave.


#11 If your car is older than your kids are, you might be a typical American worker.


#12 If you can’t afford to buy the things that you are selling to the public, you might be a typical American worker.


#13 If the balances on your credit cards are larger than your bank accounts are, you might be a typical American worker.


#14 If going to Burger King is your idea of “fine dining”, then you might be a typical American worker.


#15 If it costs more to fill up your car with gas than you will make at your job today, you might be a typical American worker.  The price of gasoline has increased by 83 percent since Barack Obama first took office, and the average cost of a gallon of gas in the United States is now up to $3.52.


#16 If you eat your cereal with a fork so that you can save milk, you might be a typical American worker.


#17 If your electricity bill keeps going up but your paycheck never does, you might be a typical American worker.


#18 If it feels like you are losing an organ every time you pay for health insurance each month, you might be a typical American worker.


#19 If you feel like your employer is constantly tempted to replace you with someone younger and cheaper, then you might be a typical American worker.


#20 If you are so poor that you cannot even afford to pay attention, you might be a typical American worker.


Unfortunately, a lot more Americans are going to be forced into working these kinds of jobs if current trends continue.


Read more - 
http://www.blacklistednews.com/20_Signs_You_Might_Be_A_Typical_American_Worker_/18004/0/0/0/Y/M.html

Authorities in Switzerland have confiscated $6 trillion in counterfeit U.S. bonds -

Authorities in Switzerland have confiscated $6 trillion in counterfeit U.S. bonds - 


Authorities in Switzerland have confiscated $6 trillion in counterfeit U.S. bonds at the request of Italian prosecutors, authorities said Friday.


In Italy, eight people were arrested across the country and placed under investigation for fraud and other crimes.


The bonds, carrying the false date of issue of 1934, had been transported in 2007 from Hong Kong to Zurich, where they were transferred to a Swiss trust, according to prosecutors in the southern Italian city of Potenza.


Authorities said that U.S. officials had confirmed the bonds were counterfeit.


Prosecutors said the fraud had not been completed, but that it appeared that the suspects intended to try to sell the fake bonds to a developing nation, directly or through an intermediary bank.


Recently, Carabinieri carrying out a routine search at a highway rest stop found a briefcase containing $20 billion in fake bonds.






Read more: http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/World/20120217/government-bonds-fake-120217/

Three Smart Things About Boogers -

Three Smart Things About Boogers - 


1 Boogers are good for you: One researcher argues that picking your nose and snacking on the haul is actually beneficial for the immune system. This is great news for the 91 percent of adults who admit to picking. An extensive study on nose-fingering revealed that members of all socioeconomic groups have very similar rhino-exploration habits.


2 Mining for nose-gold can turn into a pathological disorder. Rhinotillexomania (loosely, furious nose-picking) is the term used to describe obsessive-compulsive digging, and it can lead to medical issues like repeated nosebleeds, a decrease in good nasal bacteria, and in rare cases septum perforation.


3 King Tut had his own personal nose-picker. The young Egyptian pharaoh hired this royal assistant for the low, low price of three head of cattle and, naturally, food and lodging. It’s best to keep an imperial snout excavator well fed and rested.


Read more - 
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2012/01/st_3st_boogers/

The US Federal Reserve has added more than $2 trillion to the base money supply since 2008 -

The US Federal Reserve has added more than $2 trillion to the base money supply since 2008 - 






Capital Shrugged


Capitalism’s greatest strength has been its resiliency – its ability to survive the throes and challenges of crises and business cycles to fuel innovation and economic growth. Today, however, more than four years into a credit crisis, a conspicuous enigma calls this legacy into question.


Despite recent hopes of recovery in the US, including an inventory catch-up in the fourth quarter of 2011, real US GDP growth has remained persistently below trend. Moreover, although seasonally adjusted January employment data have brought the unemployment rate down to 8.3% (while total jobs were actually lost in January), the more realistic rate of “underemployment” remains over 15% and the labor-force participation rate is at a record 30-year low. And the US is clearly not alone in its malaise, with the eurozone fighting a far more urgent sovereign-debt crisis.


So, why is this time different? The answer lies in Ayn Rand’s rhetorical invocation of despair in her 1957 epic Atlas Shrugged: “Who is John Galt?” Simply put, when the state seizes the incentives and drivers of capital investment, owners of capital go on strike.


Rand portrays innovative industrialists as akin to Atlas in Greek mythology, carrying on his back a dystopian world of growing and overbearing collectivist government. The hero, John Galt, calls for them all to shrug, to “stop the motor of the world” by withdrawing from their productive pursuits, rather than promoting a world in which, under the guise of egalitarianism, incentives have been usurped in order to protect the politically connected from economic failure.


Today, Rand’s fictional world has seemingly become a reality – endless bailouts and economic stimulus for the unproductive at the expense of the most productive, and calls for additional taxation on capital investment. The shrug of Rand’s heroic entrepreneurs is to be found today within the tangled ciphers of corporate and government balance sheets.


The US Federal Reserve has added more than $2 trillion to the base money supply since 2008 – an incredible and unprecedented number that is basically a gift to banks intended to cover their deep losses and spur lending and investment. Instead, as banks continue their enormous deleveraging, almost all of their new money remains at the Fed in the form of excess reserves.


Corporations, moreover, are holding the largest amounts of cash, relative to assets and net worth, ever recorded. And yet, despite what pundits claim about strong balance sheets, firms’ debt levels, relative to assets and net worth, also remain near record-high levels.


Hoarded cash is king. The velocity of money (the frequency at which money is spent, or GDP relative to base money) continues to plunge to historic lows. No wonder monetary policy has had so little impact. Capital, the engine of economic growth, sits idle – shrugging everywhere.


Rand, perhaps better than any economic observer, underscored the central role of incentives in driving entrepreneurial innovation and risk-taking. Whittle away at incentives – and at the market’s ability to communicate them through price signals – and you starve the growth engine of its fuel. Alas, central bankers, with their manipulation of interest rates and use of quantitative easing, patently neglect this fact.


Interest rates are more than a mere economic input that determines levels of saving and investment. Rather, as the Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises emphasized, they are a reflection of people’s aggregate time preference – or desire for present versus future satisfaction – not a determinant of it.


Interest rates thus incentivize and convey to entrepreneurs how to allocate capital through time. For example, lower interest rates and cost of capital raise the relative attractiveness of cash flows further in the future, and capital investment increases – the system’s natural homeostatic response to higher savings and lower consumption.


State manipulation of interest rates, however, does not influence time preference, even though it signals such a change. The resulting inconsistency creates distortions: as with any price control, capital receives an incentive to flow to investment that is inconsistent with actual supply and demand.


The Fed is purposefully and insidiously distorting the incentive system – specifically, signals provided by the price of money – resulting in mal-investment (and, when public debt is monetized, inflation). This can continue for a time, rewarding unproductive investments and aspiring oligarch-speculators who presume that the Fed has eliminated risk. But, as Rand reminds us, at some point the jig is up.


Today, after the largest credit expansion in history, that point has clearly been reached. Impassive capital now ignores deceptive market signals, and the liquidation of untenable mal-investment percolates through the system as immutable time preferences prevail.


Read more -
http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/spitznagel2/English

Financial Sex Aid: Website Helps Florida Coeds Find 'Sugar Daddy'... -

Financial Sex Aid: Website Helps Florida Coeds Find 'Sugar Daddy'... - 






People who are looking for the perfect match… both men and women… go  online seeking a certain kind of arrangement. A “sugar baby” is typically younger and eager for adventure. A “sugar daddy” is usually an older, financially established provider. A website called www.seekingarrangement.com helps the two meet.


CBS4′s Jorge Estevez found a 22-year old who is looking for her first sugar daddy.  She is a Miami student looking for someone to help her pay for her higher education and all the related expenses.


A self-proclaimed, cute, blonde who is looking for fun in Fort Lauderdale admits to being a college student looking for some help.



And another pretty, young Miami college girl, who does not want to be identified, is more direct… asking specifically for 10 to 20-thousand dollars monthly. The 22-year old claims to be looking for someone who will never say ”NO” to her needs.


“The lesson here… ask and you shall receive,” she told Estevez.


“What have they given you?” asked Estevez.


“They have given me cars, trips, jewelry. These guys will take you out and they will court you,” she responded.


Jorge asked “What do these guys do for you?”


“They support you financially… financially,” she replied.


Support is proving to be crucial for a 20-year old sugar baby, who is in college at Florida International University.


“Have they paid your tuition?” asked Estevez.


“Yes Jorge.”


“Books?” he asked.


“Books. Everything,” she responded. “When I say everything… I mean everything.”


In fact, her profile asks for someone to help a young’in out.  And she is not alone. Numbers compiled by the “seeking arrangement” website showed that in the past six months, FIU ranked 20th in a list of the top universities with “sugar baby” sign ups.


Florida ranked third in the U.S. behind New York and California with 67,815 total users, of all ages. There are just over 1,000,000 and growing .


Our FIU student argued that it’s a way to survive the times.


“I don’t get support from my parents. As soon as I turned 18, they told me I am on my own. I have to figure everything out on my own Jorge.


“And you discovered this? And you thought…?” asked Estevez.


“My dreams came true Jorge.”




“Your dreams came true,” he repeated.


Then his interview added, “But with every give…  there is a take.”


“They give you trips. They pay for school. They give you presents. What do you give them?” asked Estevez.


“Sex,” said the FIU “sugar baby.”


“Just like that,” asked Jorge.


“Just like that,” she said.





Read more - 
http://miami.cbslocal.com/2012/02/14/financial-sex-aid-florida-co-eds-seek-sugar-daddy-for-college-degree/

The Niagara Parks Commission will allow tightrope walker Nik Wallenda to walk a wire across the Niagara Falls gorge -

The Niagara Parks Commission will allow tightrope walker Nik Wallenda to walk a wire across the Niagara Falls gorge - 


The Niagara Parks Commission will allow tightrope walker Nik Wallenda to walk a wire across the Niagara gorge – a 180-degree turn from its established policy.


Commissioners voted Wednesday to allow the stunt during their Wednesday morning meeting.


It’s an about face for the provincial agency responsible for managing the public property along the Niagara River. It goes against a decades-old policy banning stunters from Niagara Falls.


The parks commission has decided to allow one “qualified stutner” every 20 years.


“It’s a new day,” Niagara Parks Commission chairwoman Janice Thomoson said.


The commission will give Wallenda 45 days to negotiate the arrangements for the walk.


Last year, the New York State assembly passed a one-time exemption to its ban on stunts that will allow Wallenda to use New York's Goat Island state park as one of the endpoints for the highwire act.


Today's NPC decision was needed to give Wallenda permission to use its Table Rock area as the other endpoint.


Read more - 
http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3472774

World's tiniest chameleon discovered in Madagascar... - one of the smallest reptiles on the planet -

World's tiniest chameleon discovered in Madagascar... - one of the smallest reptiles on the planet - 


His species is renowned for its ability to blend in, but this tiny critter is even better than most as the world's smallest chameleon.
Balanced on the tip of a scientist's fingernail in Madagascar, the-three centimetre reptile is no bigger than the flies that form his average-sized cousin's lunch.
Scientists discovered four new species - called Brookesia micra - on a small islet just off the main island.



This particular chameleon is now thought to be one of the smallest reptiles on the planet.
Ted Townsend, of San Diego State University, carried out genetic testing on the new species.
He said: 'Their size suggests that chameleons might have evolved in Madagascar from small and inconspicuous ancestors, quite unlike the larger and more colourful chameleons most familiar to us today.'




Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2101040/Discovered-The-mini-meleon-smallest-reptiles-planet.html?ITO=1490

20 Things We Can Learn About The Future Of America From The Death Of Detroit -

20 Things We Can Learn About The Future Of America From The Death Of Detroit - 


Do you want to know what the future of America is going to look like?  Just check out what is happening to Detroit.  The city of Detroit was once one of the greatest industrial cities in the history of the world, but today it is a rotting, decaying, post-apocalyptic hellhole.  Nearly half the men are unemployed, nearly half the population is functionally illiterate, more than half of the children are living in poverty and the city government is drowning in debt.  As economic conditions have gotten worse, crime has absolutely exploded.  Every single night in Detroit there are frightening confrontations between desperate criminals and exasperated homeowners.  Unfortunately, the police force in Detroit has been dramatically reduced in size.  When the police in Detroit are called, they often show up very late if they even show up at all. Detroit has become a lawless hellhole where violence is the currency of the streets.  If you want to survive in Detroit, you better be ready to fight because there are hordes of desperate criminals that are quite eager to take literally everything that you have got.  But don’t look down on Detroit too much, because what is happening in Detroit will soon be happening all over America.


The following are 20 things we can learn about the future of America from the death of Detroit….


#1 People don’t want to live where the stench of failure and decay is constantly in the air.  Back in the 1950s, Detroit was a teeming metropolis of approximately 2 million people.  According to the 2010 census, only 713,000 people live in Detroit today.  The U.S. Census Bureau says that Detroit lost a resident every 22 minutes during the first decade of this century.


#2 When the economy falls apart, desperate people will do desperate things and many homeowners will fight back.  Justifiable homicide in Detroit rose by a staggering 79 percent during 2011.


#3 In major cities where people are scrambling just to survive, any confrontation can quickly escalate into a life or death affair.  The rate of self-defense killings in Detroit is currently 2200% above the national average.


#4 When there is not enough money to go around, a lot of local governments will choose to cut back on police protection.  Ten years ago, there were approximately 5,000 police for the city of Detroit.  Today, there are less than 3,000.


#5 The essential social services that you are enjoying today will not always be there in the future.  Officials in Detroit recently announced that due to budget constraints, all police stations will be closed to the public for 16 hours a day.


#6 Economic decay is a breeding ground for chaos and violence.  Last Friday and Saturday, a total of nine shootings were reported in the city of Detroit.


#7 More Americans than ever are realizing the benefits of self-defense.  The following is what 73-year-old Julia Brown recently told the Daily….


The last time Brown, 73, called the Detroit police, they didn’t show up until the next day. So she applied for a permit to carry a handgun and says she’s prepared to use it against the young thugs who have taken over her neighborhood, burglarizing entire blocks, opening fire at will and terrorizing the elderly with impunity.


#8 When crime gets go bad that the police are powerless to stop it, vigilante groups begin to form….


In fact, crime has gotten so bad and the citizens are so frustrated by the lack of police assistance that they have resorted to forming their own organizations to fight back.  One group, known as “Detroit 300″, was formed after a 90-year-old woman on Detroit’s northwest side was brutally raped in August.


#9 When criminals become desperate, they will steal literally anything that is not bolted down.  In Detroit today, thieves have stripped so much copper wiring out of the street lights that half of all the lights in some neighborhoods no longer work.


#10 As things fall apart, eventually a time comes when it is not even safe to drive down the road in the middle of the day.  100 bus drivers in Detroit recently refused to drive their routes out of fear of being attacked on the streets.  The head of the bus drivers union, Henry Gaffney, said that the drivers were literally “scared for their lives“….


“Our drivers are scared, they’re scared for their lives. This has been an ongoing situation about security. I think yesterday kind of just topped it off, when one of my drivers was beat up by some teenagers down in the middle of Rosa Parks and it took the police almost 30 minutes to get there, in downtown Detroit,” said Gaffney.


#11 One of the clearest signs of decline in America is the state of our education system.  Only 25 percent of all students in Detroit end up graduating from high school.  Many other major cities will soon have graduation rates similar to Detroit.


#12 When local governments run out of money they are forced to make tough choices.  After already shutting down dozens of schools, officials in Detroit have announced plans to close down 16 more schools.


#13 A growing percentage of Americans cannot even read or write.  This is a very frightening indication of what the future of America could look like.  According to one stunning report, 47 percent of all people living in the city of Detroit are functionally illiterate.


#14 Sadly, child poverty is absolutely exploding all over the United States.  Today, 53.6 percent of all children that live in Detroit are living below the poverty line.


#15 The employment situation in America is a lot worse than the government is telling us.  An analysis of census figures found that 48.5% of all men living in Detroit from age 20 to age 64 did not have a job in 2008.


#16 When a major city becomes a hellhole, home prices fall like a rock.  The median price of a home in Detroit is now just $6000.


#17 When crime and looting become commonplace, homes in an area can become absolutely worthless.  Some homes in Detroit have been sold for a single dollar.


#18 When depression-like conditions exist in an area for a number of years, large numbers of people will move on to greener pastures.  As of a few years ago, there were more than 40,000 vacant properties in the city of Detroit.


#19 Just because we have a high standard of living today does not mean that will always be the case.  Detroit is just a rotting shell of what it once was, and what is happening to Detroit will happen to much of the rest of America very soon.  The following is what one British reporter found during his visit to Detroit….


Much of Detroit is horribly dangerous for its own residents, who in many cases only stay because they have nowhere else to go. Property crime is double the American average, violent crime triple. The isolated, peeling homes, the flooded roads, the clunky, rusted old cars and the neglected front yards amid trees and groin-high grassland make you think you are in rural Alabama, not in one of the greatest industrial cities that ever existed.


#20 When government finances collapse, politicians look for things to sell off and “privatize”.  Unfortunately, the Detroit city government is so broke that it is now considering selling off some of its most famous assets….


Now, the city of Detroit’s most venerable assets — from Belle Isle to the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel — could end up on the auction block as the city fights for its financial life.


Facing mounting debt and the prospect of a state-appointed emergency manager, the city is looking at all options to shed expenses and raise revenue. If city officials can’t come up with a viable budget plan, an emergency manager would have the power to sell assets as part of a financial takeover of Detroit.


But Detroit is not alone.


Read more -
http://www.blacklistednews.com/20_Things_We_Can_Learn_About_The_Future_Of_America_From_The_Death_Of_Detroit_/17938/0/0/0/Y/M.html

Rats being put to work in Colombia, training to detect explosives -

Rats being put to work in Colombia, training to detect explosives - 


At a Colombian National Police base in the outskirts of Bogota, the nation's capital, a new recruit is being trained.
This new recruit is unlike any other. It stands on four legs, has white hair all over its body and weighs slightly less than a pound. Its name is Rattus Norvegicus -- but it's more commonly known as a lab rat.
During a recent training session, trainers set the white rat on a patch of grass where they had hidden an explosive device underground. It took the rat less than a minute to find it. The rodent was showered with praise. Its trainers also gave it its favorite reward, a treat.
Though safer than a decade ago, Colombia is a country where landmines and car bombs are still a threat. Earlier this month, six people were killed by a car bomb targeting a police station in the town of Villa Rica in the southern province of El Cauca. The day before the February 2 bombing, nine people were killed and 70 were injured by another explosion in the neighboring province of Narino.
Edgar Ramirez, a second lieutenant with the Colombian National Police, says his country still "faces conflicts such as guerrillas, and criminal and paramilitary groups. There are many disputed territories because of the drug trade or simply to take control, and many groups set up land mines in these territories."
In the past, Colombian police used bomb-sniffing dogs; but the dogs' weight would often trigger the explosives. That's not a problem for lab rats that weigh slightly less than a pound.
And according to the trainers, their sense of smell is just as good as a dog's.
Colombia is not the first country to use rodents in this fashion. Rats have already been put to work in Mozambique to detect landmines.
Ramirez says that the only disadvantage he can think of about using rats is their short life span.


Read more - 
http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/13/world/americas/colombia-bomb-detecting-rats/index.html?hpt=hp_bn2

Hungary’s Needy Given Money to Burn (in Their Furnaces) - blocks of disused bank notes -

Hungary’s Needy Given Money to Burn (in Their Furnaces) - blocks of disused bank notes -



Hungary’s central bank, currently at the centre of a dispute between the country’s government and the EU, has launched an unusual social programme to counter the effects of the current cold snap. It’s handing out blocks of disused bank notes to the country’s poorest citizens, so that they can be burned for fuel.

Could your Valentine's kiss give you lead poisoning? - Most lipstick contains lead -

Could your Valentine's kiss give you lead poisoning? - Most lipstick contains lead - 


If you're going to be on either end of a kiss this Valentine's Day, you might want to consider smooching bare-lipped. Most lipstick contains lead.
Lead has been banned in paint since 1978 because of its toxicity at low levels, but it still shows up in small amounts in some of the best-selling lipstick brands.
The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, which did an analysis of a study of lead in lipstick conducted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, wants consumers to know that most of the 400 different lipsticks tested were positive for the substance.
"Recognizing that there is no safe level of lead exposure, we need to be protecting women and children from all levels of exposure," said Stacy Malkan, co-founder of the campaign—a non-profit coalition of environmental- and cancer-prevention groups.
Malkan's group wants the FDA to set a limit for how much lead lipstick can contain and to study whether there are any dangers to having the substance applied to human lips, particularly the lips of children and pregnant women. "We know that ingestion of lipstick happens. It gets into our bodies," she said, noting that lead accumulates in people.
The group said that five of the nine lipstick brands with the most lead are sold by L'Oreal, the world's largest cosmetics maker.




Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/02/14/could-your-valentines-kiss-give-lead-poisoning/

Top Republican at CPAC says - Jeb Bush could emerge as nominee at a brokered convention -

Top Republican at CPAC says - Jeb Bush could emerge as nominee at a brokered convention - 




Al Cardenas, head of the American Conservative Union, has said that Republican turmoil might lead to a brokered convention in which Jeb Bush, former Florida governor, would emerge as a “possible alternative” party nominee.


Mr Cardenas, who is running this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), a gathering in Washington of some 10,000 conservatives, told MailOnline that it was not certain that one of the four current Republican candidates would emerge victorious.


His comments came as Republicans fretted publicly about the perceived weaknesses of Mitt Romney, the establishment choice and frontrunner, Rick Santorum, surprise winner in three states on Tuesday, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul.


Read more -
http://harndenblog.dailymail.co.uk/2012/02/top-republican-at-cpac-jeb-bush-could-emerge-as-nominee-at-a-brokered-convention-.html